Relationship as Art Medium
~ a mycelial network ignited ~
melting into a river of relation, ordered chaos of which i am a dancing speck, a swirling molecule, making contact and curvatures.
tree, moss, and fungi learning frm the forest on the land of painting residency (2022)
i have been swirling with relationship as my primary art medium for a few months now. it was the most available and necessary practice for me to cultivate thru my recent huge life transitions and transience. relational creativity and tending is what floated me thru material uncertainty. fully an ethereal artform.
i had a creative breakthru in june of last summer while undertaking my second of four self-led painting residencies. to summarize, i shifted from trying to command and control paint to opening up to the wisdom and will of the paint as well as the ideas with which i was creatively collaborating. i started looking at my painting practice as a relationship. one that i only felt ease and joy within when i was tending to it like a partnership rather than a unilateral using. then, thru polyfying my human relationships, (a move that necessitates conscious creation as the classical structures of relating fall away), i tuned this same sense of engagement to embodied others. ive been taking note of the shifts, openings, expansions: a mycelial network ignited where a monocrop farm once lived. suddenly endless opportunities to dive into intimacy cracks, shift vision, grow anew. the pleasure of which is electrified by the nature of shared experience and multidimensional connection. A JOY TO CREATE, an endless stream of collaborators. Cocreation is the main mode of earth dance. as you might guess, since i initially connected with this idea thru non-human relations, i have a very expansive inclusion of what and who are creative partners. i’m constantly creating with a chorus of collaborators: entities of all forms, earthed and unearthed — material and ethereal. in the medium of relationship, life is art, and we are the material. a beautiful practice of being with the moment and holding the fulcrum of experience. dna strands of being and witnessing, expressing and receiving, together create a pattern of flow (a pattern of life). relationship as art medium is a process of moving thru inquiry, witness, and response —allowing ourselves to change and be changed — daring to keep our eyes open to the unfolding.
in progress painting mentioned above — balanced order: grounding point (2022)